Profits & Prophets

Randy Tseng 🎲

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Religion & Spirituality
Updated twice weekly

Podcast on how Christians in business try to make money without making it god. We talk about sales & souls, finance & faith, profits & prophets. randytseng.substack.com

5 days ago

Ep 10: Nearly Died 4x, Then Fired Before the Promotion | Brittany DeRoche

Profits & Prophets, Episode 10: Brittany DeRoche Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Episode 10 is Brittany DeRoche, who helps churches turn underused building space into childcare centers and coffee shops. I’d kept thinking someone should be doing exactly this, and then there she was. (I asked about the four times she almost died inside the first two minutes, because I couldn’t not!) Brittany closed 24 church childcare partnerships in about two and a half years, worth $2.2 million to the company she worked for. She was about to be promoted into the role full-time. In December she was fired instead. She walked away from about six figures in commissions and from possible lawsuits that a few lawyers thought were strong. “It wasn’t my battle to fight,” she said, and the full story is “not my story to tell yet.” Her business now is the same work, on her own. She calls church buildings “untapped real estate,” and childcare is the shortage: she was on a thirteen-month waiting list. It is, she said, “two problems with one solution.” A client opened in June with at least 180 spots in Colorado Springs, a city she says needs about 17,000. She says a church can bring in $200,000 to $300,000 a year. She compares her firing to Jonah’s storm. A mentor had said she’d outgrow the company; she liked the salary. She launched in March. When we talked she had about two dozen churches in conversation and expected to onboard three clients within a month or two. The family lives on one income with four kids, one in college. “We shouldn’t be okay,” she said, “and all I can say is God is so good because we are okay.” Companies have also come to her about fractional business development work, and she’s still praying through what that side work looks like. Highlights “I was training for my first hundred mile race, found out two weeks before the race that I was pregnant, still ran the race, and kept running through the whole pregnancy.” “The doctor said, ‘Well, you’ll no longer run marathons.’ And I laughed. Well, it’s a good thing that I do ultras then.” “I used to question why, and now I’m like, all right, I don’t need to know why, just show me how to use it now.” “It really is two problems with one solution.” “He actually has more faith in this business than I do some days.” (On her husband, whom she calls her soon-to-be believer.) If you’d rather skim * 01:28 I ask about the four times she almost died. I really couldn’t not. * 01:46 Ovarian cancer at nineteen, a hundred-mile race, and a baby * 06:14 A doctor says no more marathons. She laughs and mentions ultras. * 12:14 Twenty-four church childcare partnerships, a promotion coming, and then December * 13:28 Jonah, a mentor’s warning, and her husband saying “rebuild it for us” * 14:32 Walking away from the lawsuits, and learning to forgive a little each day * 16:44 The six-figure commissions, and the other thing she put off this year: an Ironman * 18:07 The book she’s planning: Rise Anyway with Courage and Endurance * 19:08 Entrepreneurship is not for the weak * 21:19 Beautiful buildings, a thirteen-month waiting list, and what a church can earn from sharing space * 23:36 The hardest part of working for herself, and a canceled flight that landed her at a church conference * 30:21 Starting a faith-driven business with a husband who isn’t a believer yet About Brittany Brittany DeRoche runs Church Activation, a consultancy that helps churches use their underused space for childcare and other community needs. She works with churches across the country, including clients in Colorado Springs. She spent six years at a ministry consulting company, starting as a project administrator, before launching her own business in March. She’s also a three-time cancer survivor, a mom of four, and training for her sixth full Ironman. She’s working on a book, and said churches or pastors curious about what she does are welcome to reach out. * LinkedIn: Brittany DeRoche * Website: churchactivationco.com If your church has a building that sits quiet for most of the week, go talk to her! Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
2 Oct

Ep 9: Trusting God in Layoffs | David Pengelley

Profits & Prophets, Episode 9: David Pengelley Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Episode 9 is David Pengelley, a fractional AI consultant in Sydney who also does the AI Operators podcast. We worked out within thirty seconds that we both love Jesus, AI, and podcasts. (His podcast setup is far better than mine!) David signed the paperwork, entered his bank details into Workday, and planned Christmas presents and camping gear around the paycheck. Three days before his start date, the company removed the headcount from APAC. It capped three years of late-round interviews that kept ending in no, after thirteen years at Salesforce and a redundancy. His read: “For whatever reason, God didn’t want me at that particular tech organization at that particular time. I don’t understand it. I don’t have to.” He runs Valid Agenda, a fractional AI consultancy, and says building is easy while charging is hard. He once delivered a client a full report without saying it was paid work, and it became free consulting. What he took from it: price outcomes instead of hours, and get paid for the scoping before the bigger engagement. His shorthand is a designer who bills ten thousand dollars for ten minutes: “You’re paying me for the twenty-five years, not the ten minutes.” A year ago he offered friends and family a free ChatGPT coaching session. Nobody took one. “I can’t get paid by someone else and I can’t get paid to be me. What am I doing wrong, God?” He shelved an idle clicker game, the kind he said prints money: “The world doesn’t need another idle game from me.” The consultancy isn’t yet a steady income. Of Christ in the Loop, his planned Sydney conference on AI and ministry: “I’ve got the domain name and a waiting list. That’s pretty much it.” Highlights “God’s given me a certain set of talents and skills, a very particular set of skills, as Liam Neeson might say.” “They worked out I was a churchy, as they called me.” (On his first job, laboring on a trade site, where the crew spent a summer trying to get him to swear.) “The issue always being not enough time and not enough tokens.” “Short of a prophetic vision or a burning bush, I just need to keep doing the work, and the right thing will flourish at the right time.” “As humans, we have a creator, and how often are we keeping him in the loop?” If you’d rather skim * 03:46 A redundancy package, karate with the kids, and hundreds of applications with almost no replies * 05:06 Signed, onboarded, and cancelled three days before the start date * 09:18 FX day trading, why he calls it soul destroying, and how it turned into ChartReporter * 14:44 The Pope, AI-written prayers, and a 1642 prayer book * 19:09 The idle clicker game he almost built, and why he didn’t * 26:05 The client who got a free report because nobody said the word “paid” * 29:06 A fractional CFO’s advice: stop pricing hours, start pricing outcomes * 41:42 Free coaching, zero takers, and the question he asked God * 43:37 Why it’s called Christ in the Loop About David David Pengelley is based in Sydney, Australia, where he runs Valid Agenda, a fractional AI consultancy for small and medium businesses and enterprises. He also built ChartReporter, an analytics platform for traders on MetaTrader that has trial users and is still working out how to convert them. He is part of the AI Operators podcast, which does weekly live chats and short “field notes” videos on real AI usage. Before all of it he spent thirteen years at Salesforce. He’s the treasurer at his church, and he’s now building Christ in the Loop, a planned conference in Sydney on AI and ministry. If you’re in Sydney and want to help run it, he said he’d love to hear from you. * Valid Agenda: validagenda.com * ChartReporter: chartreporter.com * AI Operators podcast: aioperatorspod.com * Christ in the Loop (waitlist): christintheloop.com Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
25 Sept

Ep 8: Working to Rest vs Working from Rest | Mark Rowan

Profits & Prophets, Episode 8: Mark Rowan Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Episode 8 is Mark Rowan, who runs Sheepfeast and trained an actual sheepdog before he could drive. His dad left a twenty-year academic career for a West Virginia sheep farm, and somewhere in there started trading letters with the man who wrote the book “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23”. Mark Rowan’s dad spent twenty years as a college professor, then felt called back to the farm in West Virginia and turned it into a sheep operation. Mark was five. By seven he’d trained a border collie sheepdog through 4-H. “One of us was very smart,” he says, and he doesn’t mean himself. His dad traded letters with Phillip Keller, who wrote A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, and that led to Psalm 23 Camp, the outreach Mark grew up inside. Sheepfeast, the business he runs now, is named for John 21:17, feed my sheep, and keeps circling one idea: sheep are useless left to themselves, and so is anyone working from their own strength. Mark splits it into working to rest, grinding through the week for a Friday that never pays off, and working from rest, where effort follows abiding in Christ instead of earning a break from it. “It’s somewhat of a mystery,” he admits, “but mostly it’s this: let God’s presence show up in your life as much as possible.” I asked if he’s ever lost a client over his faith. He hasn’t. He works mostly in the Bible Belt, where the two rarely collide, and he said it plainly. “Reject me, please,” he joked, then, more seriously, “maybe I need to have more of those in the future.” Sheepfeast took four years to go from idea to launch, dreamed up in 2018 for church discipleship, not started until 2022, aimed at authors and coaches. Highlights “One of us was very smart.” (On training a border collie sheepdog at age seven.) “Nobody’s gonna get to heaven and God’s gonna talk about how impressed he was with your theology.” “If you haven’t invested the time to build a relationship with someone of a different belief system than you, probably keep your mouth shut more often than not.” “Two thousand cubits back from the Ark, so you’ll know which way to walk.” (On why his coaching framework borrows its name from Joshua 3.) “Reject me, please. Maybe I need to have more of those in the future.” (On never having lost a client over his faith.) If you’d rather skim * 00:31 The West Virginia farm, and why his dad came back to it after twenty years away * 02:30 Sheep feast, sheep fest, or an actual sheep dinner * 03:12 His dad’s letters with the man who wrote A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 * 04:49 Why sheep are the one animal that dies without a keeper * 07:09 The sheep nobody sheared for years, and what it looked like when it turned up * 09:06 Working from rest versus working to rest * 13:04 The two thousand cubit rule, and why his framework is named after it * 14:50 A prayer walk, an hour with God, and what a normal Tuesday looks like * 20:14 The Metamorpho Method, and five steps built on Habakkuk 2:2 * 23:28 Has he ever lost a client over his faith? “Reject me, please.” * 30:41 The love bank, and when to keep your mouth shut about someone’s theology About Mark Mark Rowan runs Sheepfeast, a coaching and tech consultancy for Christian leaders, mostly authors, coaches, and ministry leaders, built around what he calls the Metamorphoo Method: five steps for turning a message into an actual business. He grew up on the sheep farm his dad built after leaving academia, which also produced Psalm 23 Camp, the outreach ministry Mark grew up inside of and which he says is “back in the conversation” this year. Sheepfeast offers a free assessment and a free thirty-minute strategy-and-prayer call he calls the 2000 Cubit Rule Session. * Sheepfeast: sheepfeast.com * Metamorphoo Method: metamorphoomethod.com Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
11 Sept

Ep 7: 20Y, in College, from a Meat Counter to Finance | Levi Martens

Profits & Prophets, Episode 7: Levi Martens Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Episode 7 is Levi Martins, a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual who is also still a college student, which is a combination I had to hear twice before it landed. He turned twenty one the day after we recorded. Levi got the job because a woman he’d met once at a meat counter had a dream about him. He was seventeen, cutting steaks in a department he was too young for, and asked a customer why she was shopping at seven on a Monday. She did financial planning. They had coffee. A year later, the day after he prayed Psalm 86 for a sign of favor, she called. She’d dreamt she should offer him an internship. He started five days later. He’s two and a half years into an industry where ninety five percent quit inside five. He could open an account that isn’t in a client’s interest, make a lot of money off it, and they’d never know. I asked what stops him. “I think that’s a very prideful thing to say, is I’m incapable of giving a bad recommendation.” He has student loans. If it ever came to compromising, he’d leave. Five months ago a client left a voicemail after hours. Levi assumed he was canceling. Instead: a guy on LinkedIn was running three hundred miles through the desert, did he want to come. He skipped a week of class, lived in an RV with five strangers from the internet, and paced eighty five miles on ten miles a week of training. It cost him his Achilles. Running had been his only way out of his own head. He told his friends he had nothing to contribute and could use some love. Highlights “All right, well, you have two things. One, you have to be eighteen to do this, second, you have to be potty trained. And unfortunately I was neither of those.” “Some days you’re on a roller coaster that’s on fire. Some days it’s up, some days you’re flying down with your hands in the air, other days you’re at the bottom and you’re screaming and you’re lost.” “I think that’s a very prideful thing to say, is I’m incapable of giving a bad recommendation.” “When you choose to run an ultra marathon, you walk into that cave with a pickaxe and you go as deep as you can and you start digging until the pickaxe breaks and your fingers bleed.” If you’d rather skim * 00:32 Homeschool, a co-op of ninety kids taught by other people’s moms, and college classes in high school * 01:31 The grocery store at fourteen, and the meat department a year before he was allowed in it * 02:00 A customer buying expensive steaks at seven on a Monday night * 02:40 “You have to be eighteen, and you have to be potty trained” * 03:22 Psalm 86, and what he was actually praying about * 04:03 March 6, 2022, and what he says he was doing before it * 04:42 The dream, the phone call, and skipping a two month interview process * 07:40 A guy at run club tells him entrepreneurship isn’t part of his culture. Levi’s answer. * 13:11 Bobby Doyle’s two muscles: godly ambition and godly contentment * 16:36 My walking wallets question, and the recommendation nobody would ever catch * 20:20 Student loans, impatience, and what he’d do if he ever had to choose * 23:34 Caffeine in the morning, nicotine through the day, alcohol at night, and the people he decided not to become * 24:16 “Hey, this is mom. We’re going to the hospital.” * 34:50 The voicemail he was sure was a cancellation * 36:31 The meadows, the forest, and the cave you enter with a pickaxe * 39:21 He forgets the third thing on his own list of three About Levi Levi Martins is a financial advisor in the Twin Cities, technically still an intern until he graduates from Bethel University, at which point he flips full time. He has an associates in business management from Crown College. He talks to about five new people a day and has somewhere north of a hundred unanswered LinkedIn messages, which he would like you to know is a backlog and not a strategy. Before any of this he was seventeen and cutting meat, and before that, by his own account, he was skipping class and making decisions he doesn’t think he should have survived. He came to faith on March 6, 2022. He’s happy to talk to anyone who reaches out, and asked me to say please don’t spam him 🤣 * Levi Martins on LinkedIn (the only social media he has) Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
4 Sept

Ep 6: VP of Sales -> Pastor -> CEO | Casey Crimmins

Profits & Prophets, Episode 6: Casey Crimmins Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Casey Crimmins spent his twenties climbing the ladder at GE, on track to be one of the youngest CEOs in the company’s history. He’s now the CEO of Project 658, a nonprofit in Charlotte. In between, there was a pastor’s salary, a pregnant wife, and a phone call that showed up fifteen minutes after he asked God for one. Casey Crimmins was a VP of Sales at GE, making close to a quarter million dollars a year. His words: “I was selling money, and money’s money.” In May 2014, driving to a customer meeting in Wilmington, he prayed that God would show him his plan, now, not eventually. Fifteen minutes later his phone rang. Two months after that call, he quit and took a job pastoring a church for $65k a year. He says sales and pastoring taught him the same skill: reading people and staying steady when everyone wants something different from you. Now, running Project 658, a Charlotte nonprofit serving immigrant and refugee families, he thinks churches could borrow more from the corporate world he left, starting with performance accountability instead of hiding behind grace. His test for leadership: “It’s kindness, because it’s me playing the role that God’s called me to play.” Nice and kind, he was careful to say, are not the same thing. Eighteen months into the CEO role, Casey restructured the staff at Project 658, and on June 5, 2025, laid off people whose roles didn’t fit where the organization needed to go. He calls it the worst day of his career. There was no relief afterward, no sense of God stepping in to make it feel better. He’d prayed and prepared, and still had to run on faith that the decision was right, not on how it felt. It still stings, he says, more than a year later. Highlights “That’s what sales is. You’re learning humans.” “I can’t walk into any church environment and just chill. I am seeing everything.” His wife, eight months pregnant with their third: “If you think we can make it work, do it.” If you’d rather skim * 00:01 Randy opens, and Casey’s whirlwind bio: GE, sales, pastor, nonprofit CEO * 07:02 The drive to Wilmington and the prayer that started it all * 09:34 The number: a quarter million down to sixty-five thousand * 10:04 What actually got cut to make the new salary work * 14:20 Why he thinks every teenager should have to sell something for a summer * 24:44 The case for performance improvement plans in church * 25:57 Why he can’t sit through a service without noticing every mistake * 33:58 Deciding to restructure the staff at Project 658 * 36:25 June 5, 2025, and the redemptive moment that never came * 39:36 Nice versus kind, and why Jesus rebuking Peter wasn’t nice * 42:54 The two scorecards every nonprofit CEO is graded on * 45:43 Where to find Casey, and what’s next for Project 658 About Casey Casey Crimmins is CEO of Project 658, a nonprofit in Charlotte, North Carolina that walks alongside immigrant and refugee families toward what he calls pathways to thriving and belonging. He spent his twenties in corporate sales at GE, then more than a decade as a pastor and nonprofit leader in Charlotte before taking over as CEO. He reads every message he gets on LinkedIn himself. * LinkedIn: Casey Crimmins * Project 658: project658.com Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
28 Aug

Ep 5: Turning down the biggest client deal over a name | George Hyek

Profits & Prophets, Episode 5: George Hyek Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) George messaged me on LinkedIn, and it took exactly two exchanges before I asked him to come on the show. His second message is the one that did it: his cybersecurity company doesn’t exist to provide security, it exists as a way to reach people, and cybersecurity is just the symptom. (I went back and checked. Two messages. That fast!) George spent twenty years as a cop and in federal law enforcement before any of it became Trinsec 7, his cybersecurity firm for small businesses. Two weeks before he needed it, he’d filed the LLC paperwork. Then one Sunday night, too anxious about Monday to sleep, he prayed for the first miracle he’d ever asked God for, and walked into work at 6 a.m. to find every federal employee had just been offered a one-time deal: resign today, keep getting paid for eight months. He said yes before he sat down. A year in, growth stalled. He was so busy doing the security work himself that he had no time to find new clients, the classic one-man-shop trap. He says he kept getting pointed back to Luke 5, where Jesus tells fishermen who’d caught nothing all day to put their nets down in deeper water. So he hired his first employee anyway, while he and the company were both nearly broke. His accountant and “everyone” told him it made no sense. He’s since depleted his own savings and retirement to keep the business running. As of this taping, he has enough in the bank to make payroll for August. September isn’t covered yet. This week alone, five new clients came in that he’s hoping will close before then. “I feel richer than I ever have in my entire life,” he said, days from not knowing if he can pay the employee he fought to hire. Highlights “I feel like God perfectly curated my entire career to give me the skills and expertise, even to form my company.” “My accountant, everyone was very against that decision. But they were relying on their worldly knowledge and understanding of things.” He asked me what Trinsec Seven stands for. I told him. He said, “I know I can trust you then.” “I have far less money than I’ve ever had in my life. But I feel richer than I ever have in my entire life.” If you’d rather skim * 00:00 The two-message LinkedIn exchange that got him booked * 02:03 “God has been building this company for the last twenty years of my life” * 04:21 The Sunday night he asked God for his first-ever miracle * 04:48 Six a.m., a partner’s question, and an email he’d never heard of before * 08:33 The house he built on a salary he no longer had * 11:14 The one-man-shop ceiling, and Luke 5’s “go out into the deep” * 19:31 The investor who wanted him to change the company’s name * 24:13 Why he said no, and what Trinsec Seven actually stands for * 26:38 The client meeting right after, and “I know I can trust you then” * 27:50 His eleven-year-old son, at the mall, checking that Dad remembered the goal * 28:39 A stranger covered in tattoos, and the boy who told him to read Leviticus * 34:12 His actual advice: pray before the sales call, not after About George George runs Trinsec 7, a security firm that’s about ninety nine percent cybersecurity, built to protect small businesses against attacks they don’t see coming until it’s too late. Before this, he spent two decades as a police officer, in the military, and in federal law enforcement and intelligence work. He left federal service in 2025 through a deferred resignation program, went full time on the business that May, and started taking clients that August. He’s since hired his first employee and is building a software product alongside the security work. * TRINSEC 7 * Call or text: 571-208-7018 * LinkedIn Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
21 Aug

Ep 4: What happens when you have it all? | Curtis Hunnicutt

A White Sand Beach Is Just Another White Sand Beach Profits & Prophets, Episode 4: Curtis Hunnicutt Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Episode 4 is Curtis Hunnicutt, who runs a software company that helps missionaries raise support, plus a ministry doing clean water projects in Kenya and India, out of Sweden, of all places. Curtis Hunnicutt was twenty years old and chasing money when his best friend Anthony, six foot nine and headed for the NBA, got diagnosed with leukemia and dropped to a hundred thirty five pounds. Anthony wasn’t scared of dying. He spent that time investing in the other kids on the cancer ward, while Curtis fell apart. One night on Anthony’s basement floor, Curtis read the Sermon on the Mount alone at midnight and gave his life to Jesus right there. Curtis and his wife Matilda met at Hillsong College in Australia. They live in Sweden now, running a software company that helps missionaries raise support, alongside a ministry doing clean water projects in Kenya and India. The tension from that night never left. He’s an entrepreneur, building things, talking himself out of carrying it the way everyone else does. He keeps returning to a line from the theologian Dallas Willard: “We believe in Christ, but we don’t believe him.” Three months after selling their house and buying a twenty eight thousand dollar RV to live on the road with church planters, Curtis got a text message. A man they knew had broken into his brother’s house, shot and killed his sister in law and his brother, then shot Curtis’s ten year old nephew four times before turning the gun on himself. His three year old niece was in the house. Curtis calls it a season of God “fortifying” his family, the same season that became the ministry he runs today. Highlights “After a while, a white sand beach is just another white sand beach.” “They strangle each other, they pray together, they read scripture, they serve the poor. That’s church.” “We believe in Christ, but we don’t believe him.” “What is more of this actually going to produce in my life?” If you’d rather skim * 00:57 Meet Anthony: six foot nine, Black, headed for the NBA, married to Curtis’s opposite in every way * 01:26 The leukemia diagnosis, and a hundred thirty five pounds * 02:53 Reading the Sermon on the Mount alone on Anthony’s basement floor at midnight * 04:50 Selling the house, buying a twenty eight thousand dollar RV, and “grapple chapels” * 05:46 The brother, the text message, the murder-suicide * 06:17 How that season became a ministry doing clean water projects in Kenya and India * 08:02 The cliffhanger: does Anthony live? (And the two tall Swedes.) * 11:42 “A white sand beach is just another white sand beach” * 18:04 Dallas Willard’s version of the gospel: a kingdom you already have access to * 24:21 The friend making twenty million a year who started drinking at noon * 25:19 Why he built an autism center instead of a bar * 27:23 What it cost him: the friends who stopped calling About Curtis Curtis Hunnicutt runs a software company that helps missionaries raise support, and a ministry doing clean water projects in Kenya and India alongside some church planting and coaching. He lives in Sweden with his wife, Matilda, and their three kids, six, four, and two. He spent his twenties running sales teams and chasing money before his best friend’s leukemia diagnosis, and later his brother’s murder, pushed him toward planting a church and eventually starting the ministry he runs now. * Substack: Curtis Hunnicutt * LinkedIn * Oasis Project * NGHBR Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
14 Aug

Ep 3: Can You be a Missionary at Purdue? | Ben Ooms

Most People Go Pro In Something Other Than Ministry Profits & Prophets, Episode 3: Ben Ooms Also available on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube (video) Episode 3 runs the show backwards. Usually I’m talking to business people trying to live out their faith at work. Ben Ooms is a full-time campus missionary at Purdue who joined LinkedIn nine months ago and started thinking like a founder. (His title on there is literally “missionary at Purdue,” which is not a thing you scroll past.) His students intern at Google, Microsoft and Exxon over the summer. “They’re probably making almost half of what we do in a year during the summer.” Ben is the one discipling them about money. Purdue has fifty eight thousand students and, he says, the occasional Lamborghini in the lot. He’s twelve years into Cru but only got on campus this April, after a year of support raising. He asks students bluntly what they did with what they made. He never asks how much. He joined LinkedIn to find people to meet with while raising support. His job, it turned out, maps onto business more than he expected. The pitching, the cold emails, the pipeline. “I can relate a lot more to the corporate world, the entrepreneurs, than I thought I could.” The thing he kept coming back to is the handoff. He gets students for two to four years, and then “they leave the college campus and they go into your world.” He wants working believers to be the landing spot. His ministry partners give between 5 dollars and 750 a month. It goes into a Cru account, and salary, taxes and health insurance come out of it, so when less comes in than goes out, the paycheck is short. He’s still turned money down. A man who’d known him since childhood sat with him in Purdue’s Union, asked questions that felt like control, and wanted certain things taught. Ben said no. He has two kids, four and two. Highlights “I have a friend who might have been a freshman, going to a church plant, and they send around the offering basket. And he’s like, I don’t have much, but this is what I have. And he put in an Arby’s coupon.” “I know they’re going to be making money. I don’t ask how much, but I wanna ask them to trust the Lord with their finances too.” “It felt like there were strings attached, and I had to be like, thank you for the offer, but I don’t think this is best right now for you to give to our ministry.” “I only have students for two to four, maybe six years. And then they leave the college campus and they go into your world.” “I wanna be the bridge from campus faith to corporate calling.” If you’d rather skim * 00:42 Why a campus missionary joined LinkedIn, and the switch from getting to giving * 03:50 Twelve years with Cru, a wife who does the same job, and what the work actually is * 05:22 Fifty eight thousand students, twenty of them at his place each week for Nehemiah * 06:06 My question about needing money before you’re allowed to go serve God * 09:50 The Lamborghinis in the Purdue lot * 11:52 The Arby’s coupon, and the church that framed it * 13:54 What his students make in a summer versus what he makes in a year * 16:16 Me, my first paycheck, four digits, and no idea what to do with any of it * 19:43 Arrow prayers, and my complaint that it’s the right answer * 22:51 Support raising as seed funding, and pitching the greatest product ever made * 24:35 When the paycheck comes up short * 28:06 “Have you ever turned down support?” I was not expecting a story. * 31:00 His actual ask, and it isn’t money About Ben Ben Ooms is a campus missionary with Cru at Purdue, where he and his wife Hannah find spiritually interested students, share the gospel with them, and disciple student leaders one on one and in small groups. He graduated from Purdue, spent most of twelve years on staff in the South, and moved back to West Lafayette last year. Ten thousand freshmen arrive in three weeks. He’s asking for three things, in this order: people who’ll pray (he sends an update every one to three weeks with a prompt), people who’ll give, and people already working in a field who are willing to be a landing spot for a student after graduation. That last one is the new idea and the reason he’s on LinkedIn at all. * LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ben-ooms-with-cru/ * benooms.com Profits & Prophets is a passion project. No sponsors, no paid tiers, no guest fees. Just conversations I wanted to have anyway. Thanks for reading How to Make Less Money! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
7 Aug

Ep 2: A CPA moves to Kenya... | Elisha McFarlin

Profits & Prophets is a podcast about Christians in business wrestling with real costs as they figure out making money without making it god. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com
31 Jul

Ep 1: From Boxing to Podcasts for Jesus | Joel Green

Profits & Prophets is a podcast about Christians in business wrestling with real costs as they figure out making money without making it god. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit randytseng.substack.com

10 Episodes

Podcast on how Christians in business try to make money without making it god. We talk about sales & souls, finance & faith, profits & prophets. randytseng.substack.com

Creator

Randy Tseng 🎲
Years Active

2026
Episodes

10
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Randy Tseng
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Profits & Prophets